As the Rwandan jazz singer belts out the American classic “Stand by Me” to the twenty or so business people and tourists sipping cocktails and beer at the Kigali Marriott Hotel Bar, I’m struck by the irony of the situation. On April 6, 1994, no one in the world save for ten Belgian soldiers and two UN groups from Ghana and Senegal stood by the Rwandans as one million Rwandans, many of them women and children, met their brutal death much like Dian Fossey had in 1985 – with machetes and clubs. The US was reeling from our losses in Somalia and refrained from getting into conflicts we didn’t fully understand. The UN peacekeeping troops (except Ghana and Senegal) left when headquarters refused to send adequate help. Pictures of the westerners being rescued while leaving the Rwandans behind provide a striking image of the world deserting the Tutsi to die at the hands of their former neighbors and friends. To some outsiders, it seemed like it could be a civil war. Hutus make up about 85% of the population versus the Tutsi who make up about 15% (pygmies or Twa numbers are often not included in this estimate). The Rwandan government and militia were the perpetrators of the crime making it difficult to bring order. There is no peace to keep in a civil war, the UN said. Others who were watching more closely knew it was genocide. The main target of the torturous deaths that had been occurring for years were Tutsi women and children – bearers of the next generation of Tutsi and the most vulnerable. The previous incidents of genocide were random and not coordinated; however, they were bad enough for officials from surrounding African countries to facilitate a peace agreement signed in Arusha, Tanzania by leaders of the Tutsi and their aggressors, the Hutus, in January of 1994. An agreement most Hutu leaders failed to honor (and those that did were killed).

The Hutus were jealous of the prominent status the Tutsi had been given by their European colonizers first Germany, then Belgium. The Europeans needed a way to divide and conquer a cohesive population so, they made arbitrary race defining characteristics such as the size and shape of a person’s nose. The Hutus wanted more positions of power, money, and resources available for themselves. On April 6, 1994, the Hutus shot down an airplane carrying the Rwandan political leaders who stood out against the genocide. They tortured and shot the ten Belgian soldiers guarding the Prime Minister when they killed her. Simultaneously with the attacks on leadership, the Hutus and the militia launched a full scale, coordinated genocide across the entire country. The world watched in horror at the massive and rapid destruction of a people where race had only recently been defined through the issuance of Identification Cards by Belgian officials. These identification cards proved to be a death sentence for the Tutsi.

The Resistance forces (good guys) were headed by a man named Paul Kagame who had returned from exile years before and was present at the signing of the peace agreement. In less than forty-eight hours after the April 6^th attack, Kagame launched a countrywide rescue mission and offensive. Their first priority was to seek and find all injured Tustis and bring them to recovery centers.

The Ghanaians stayed and helped the victims by setting up a rescue center.

At the same time, the French aided the Genociders. Here, I have to stop and say loudly that giving Genociders guns and protection is detestable by any measure for whatever reason (this message has been edited).

The second mission of the resistance was to fight the Hutus for control of the country. Out-numbered five to one, Kagame’s troops didn’t stand a chance. It would be a fight to the death. When the Hutus saw the might and swiftness of The Resistance (aka RPF), they began to lose their momentum.  In a series of eight decisive battles, the Tutsi took control of the country on July 4, 1994. A miracle by any measure.

The picture below shows the sad victory march lead by Paul Kagame. The Resistance won. Genocide was stopped. A hollow victory. Most survivors had lost all or many family members.

As the jazz singer finishes her song and I take another sip of Virunga Gold beer, I try to remember what I was doing during the time her country’s women and children were being beaten to death. I remember hearing about Rwanda and thinking it sounded like another civil war the US didn’t belong in. Our hearts and minds were full caring for other countries. Tibetans had escaped certain genocide at the hands of the Chinese and were living in refugee camps created in India and Nepal. In 1990, the US granted one thousand visas for the Tibetans to enter the US, if and only if they had sponsors. Since they were not classified as refugees (to appease the Chinese), they needed support for health care, jobs, and a place to live. That project took until 1995 to complete.

On the day of Kagame’s sad victory march, July 4, 1994, Dave and I were backpacking in King’s Canyon National Park CA celebrating the US’s independence from Britain (since Dave’s a Brit that’s a mixed celebration for our family). We, like the rest of the world, were too busy with other concerns, our celebrations, to give a small country like Rwanda a second thought.

Today, Rwanda welcomes visitors with open arms. In the Parliament Building, they dedicate a wall of pictures showing the now President Paul Kagame awarding medals of honor to those who put their lives on the line to save them. Rwanda is considered one of the least corrupt governments in Africa. #Respect President Paul Kagame. Heart. Heart.

The city of Kigali is booming with new construction, improved infrastructure, health care for its citizens, and beautiful new hotels like the two-year-old Marriott with the soulful jazz singer. Times seem good for the city folk of Rwanda, but we’ll see tomorrow how the country people are doing when we visit Five Volcanoes, National Park.

If you’re thinking of going to Rwanda and want to learn more about the Genocide, here are some resources in Kigali I can recommend:

• Genocide Memorial (the story of what happened)
• Parliament Building (how Kagame and the Resistance (referred to as RPF) put an end to genocide)
• Belgian Memorial (often overlooked but honors those ten men who gave their lives

Pictures of the Belgian Memorial and the Parliament Building

All I can think of, as the jazz singer finishes her song and the mountains of tears I’ve been holding back begin to spill down my cheeks is that, in the future,

I’ll try to be one who stands by her.

Leo (our chow mix) knows something is up. The suitcases are out. He doesn’t care that we’re leaving. He wants to leave in the car too. Nala (our Asian village dog and Leo’s sidekick) only knows Leo is upset. She follows him around seemingly asking “Is there someone you want me to beat up for you? Huh, Leo?” While packing the last items, I’m thinking about getting sick. Travel prep to developing countries is about taking the precautions to not get sick which means you have to think about it. Not the most optimistic way to begin our travels!

A month ago, we went to the travel health concierge, Passport Health. They have personal appointments and cozy waiting rooms for one-on-one attention to our specific travel health needs. Medical prep for travel has come a long way since the eighties when I went down to the Santa Clara County Adult Immunization and Travel Clinic on Lenzen in San Jose, signed in, waited in line, got limited access, had to come back several times and do the same without an appointment. Sort of like the DMV only worst because at the end of it, you don’t get a new license, you get shot in the arm. Back then, I thought it was cool to be going somewhere that required all that prep work. I was a lot younger then. Now, I’m incredulous how far the travel health industry has come. Passport Health provided me with FOUR levels of intestinal aids. Did you think this was going to be a clean post? The many layers of gut protection available now are 1) super-duper probiotics for prevention, 2) DiaResQ and GI Microbix for fast relief and remedy in some cases, 3) Immodium for an emergency stoppage and 4) hard-hitting antibiotics if nothing else helps after two days of trying. I’ll let you know how it all works out. I’m happy to report they didn’t recommend pre-biotics.

I’ve already got my Hep A, B, and Yellow Fever so that saved me some time but I had to get Tdap, Typhoid, and Cholera.  Tdap is a combination vaccine that protects against three bacterial diseases: tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). That one cost about $98 and you need a booster every so often. Typhoid cost about $139 and the soreness in my arm lasted about a week – maybe less. I had to go back for the $349 Cholera drink the nurse mixes up. You need to drink it on an empty stomach so the vaccine can be absorbed into the stomach lining. It took some doing to find a time not too early in the morning but before I’d eaten anything. Vaxchora’s maximum effectiveness is after ten to ninety days of taking it so I hope the concierge nurse timed it right.

They sent Dave to Oakland for the Yellow Fever vaccine. Apparently, there’s an international shortage of the leading supplier, Sanofi’s, vaccine “due to a temporary cease in production”. Dave got the French vaccine, Stamaril, and now he’s speaking with a French accent.

This brings me to malaria. There are no vaccines for malaria! Bill & Melinda – please hurry with your eradication program. There is a preventative medication, Malarone (atovaquone-proguanil), taken in pill form every day starting two days before departure and continuing seven days after returning. That means we start tonight! They say this drug is so much better than the former drug, Lariam (Mefloquine), because it doesn’t have the side effect of vivid dreams or serious neurological and psychiatric side effects. I used Lariam twice on trips to Ghana without incident, at least not that I’m aware of. J The best form of protection is prevention. We’re packing a couple of tubes of 3M Ultrathon guaranteed protection for up to twelve hours. The boutique healthcare team recommends Sawyer’s spray for clothing. After reading all the warnings, i.e., don’t get it on your underwear or accidentally inhale or ingest any, I decided to pass. How much can it really help anyway?

Well, that’s what we’re up to the night before we depart. Donning our battle gear against mosquitoes, bacteria, and other infectious diseases that could be passed to us by our food handlers. That and loading our mobile devices with movies, TV Shows and books, studying how to use the Sony camera I bought six months ago and watching Nala and Leo play tag with each other because it is well past the time for their evening walk and subsequent dinner. The most important word in that sentence being dinner.

It’s Labor Day and we’ve been on our computers all day. Dave is taking a break from mapping our twenty-one-day journey in Eastern Africa to run his credit score, a fun pastime he acquired after realizing the secret to a high score is having just enough credit but not too much, and paying credit card bills before they are due.

We’ve made our list of the precious items we plan to pack in our allotted thirty-three pounds of luggage (including the suitcase). We need to carry almost a month’s worth of clothing and toiletries in a soft-sided suitcase advertised to hold one to three days of supplies. The arduous packing list comes later. First, the route we’ll take.

We’ll start our journey at the Kigali National Airport in Rwanda where we’ll be greeted by our tour guide and driven to the Kigali Marriott for a two-night stay. We decided to take a day to recover from the twenty-five and a half hour flight from SFO to Kigali.  After two nights at the Marriott, we’ll be driven two hours to Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel near Volcanoes National Park where the gorillas live. We’ll say hello to our furry cousins and relive what it must have been like for Sigourney Weaver,  err, I mean Dian Fossey, to have met and bonded with these fantastic creatures. Our time is short in Rwanda, but we hope to visit the Genocide Memorial. From their website: “The Kigali Genocide Memorial is the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It honours [their spelling, not mine] the memory of the more than one million Rwandans killed in 1994 through education and peace-building.” Once we have paid our respects, we board a plane for Nairobi and the Giraffe Manor. We’re hoping to be woken up by a giraffe in our window but there are no guarantees the brochures say.

After spending time with the longest necked animals of the world (is this true?), we’ll head out to Naboisha Camp where it’s said the big five will be hanging out. According to Wiki, “the big five game animals are the lion, leopard, rhinoceros (both black and white species), elephant, and Cape buffalo. The term big five game (usually capitalized or quoted as “Big Five“) was coined by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot.” While the name was coined from disruptable methods, it stayed and now most travel agencies advertise trips to see the Big Five.

We travel to the Masaai Mara for a few nights then on to Tanzania and the Serengeti. We want to make sure we don’t miss the Great Migration that will be taking place somewhere between the Maasai Mara of Kenya and the Ngorongoro of Tanzania so we’ll go to both! During the Great Migration 1.7 million wildebeests and zebras, accompanied by gazelles, impala and kongoni cross a crocodile-infested river risking life and limb to get to the other side. We’ll be cheering for the good guys (aka the prey) but we’re mentally (and emotionally) prepared to see the hidden predators lurking in the bushes and beneath the water’s calm surface snatch our heroes from their journey. We think we are prepared anyway.

After a half dozen or more safaris by jeep dressed in our blandly* colored safari clothes (see packing list), we head to Arusha for the Children’s Arts Camp we are putting on with the help of our local hosts from Armani Afrika. Our time in Arusha will include a four-night stay at an operating coffee farm. Coffee is our drug of choice. 🙂 Six hundred children attend school in Lemugur village. Lunch will be provided for all of them, however, only sixty will be allowed to attend the camp. On the last day of camp, we’ll have a recital as is our traditional practice. The children showcase what they have learned to their friends and family while we say a tearful goodbye.

For the last four days of our journey, we head to the beach in Nungwi, Zanzibar where we’ll rest, relax, and reminisce about the weeks we spent in Eastern Africa. Of course, we promise to keep this site updated as we go along. BTW, Dave’s credit score has climbed higher than mine using the techniques he perfected over the past year.

Map of our Eastern Africa Journey

Packing List

• 3 pairs khaki or light gray or olive green REI/Marmot/Duluth hiking pants
• 2 button up Columbia omni screen shirts in neutral tones
• 1 pair of REI technical shorts
• 1 pair Prana olive capris
• 1 pair 32 degrees gray capris
• 1 khaki safari hat
• 1 Nike runner’s visor – gray
• 1 multi-pocketed lightweight jacket from ExOfficio – sage
• 3 pairs Darn Tough hiking socks from REI
• 1 pair trail running shoes
• 1 pair croc flip flops
• 1 pair closed toe Keen sandals
• 2 weeks of underwear
• Eagle Creek ultra thin toiletry bags for shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste & brush, moisturizer

*Bland colored clothing is recommended by several blog sites for African Safaris (and you know you can trust blogs!). Several reasons given for this unfortunate choice: 1) it helps the observer blend into the environment and not spook the animals, 2) black and blue attract the tsetse fly, and 3) it doesn’t show dust and dirt as much as white. Arguments against this point to the Maasai who wear bright red and don’t seem to spook any animals. An example given in favor say a woman dressed in bright yellow scared a herd of animals away.